This Guy Quit Gaming and Lost 129 Pounds
When he saw he'd hit 315 pounds, Francisco Medeiros, 25, sold his Xbox the next day. This is his story, as told to Maria Masters.
In high school, I clocked in at about 260 pounds. I knew I was bigger than other people, but I just didn’t realize how much bigger. What got me there wasn’t really food-it was video games. I started gaming when I was 10 years old.
At first, it was all about socializing with my friends: They came over every day to play Mario, Tekken, and Medal of Honor. But I really got hooked in middle school, when I discovered an entire community of competitive gamers online. After that, as soon as I got home, I would run upstairs to play Gears of War 1 until 1 or 2 a.m. I ate snacks that wouldn’t get my controller too dirty: cookies, cans of Pringles. And I drank tons of soda-I could kill an entire box of Sprite, easy. I knew that I loved gaming, but I never realized how unbalanced my life had become.
In June 2017, I visited a walk-in clinic for a rash on my leg. Turns out, the skin infection was no big deal-it was the routine weigh-in that was the problem. When I stepped on the scale, I saw that my weight had climbed to 315 pounds. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe I had passed the 300-mark. That’s when I knew that I was addicted to gaming-it was impossible for me to play them in moderation. I was playing them for 5 to 8 hours at a time, and the farthest I’d walk was to the fridge or bathroom.
The next day, I listed my Xbox on Craigslist, and later traded away about $1,000 worth of games and accessories for a camera. The guy I traded them to was dumbfounded. But I knew I had to cut the temptation out of my life completely.
I researched diets online and stumbled across Reddit’s /loseit channel, where I heard about CICO: “calories in, calories out.” You basically try to eat less than your body naturally burns at your current body weight. Everyone raved about My Fitness Pal, an app which tracks your calories. That was the proof (and motivation I needed) to download it. I also started going to the gym three times a week. At first, I ate the recommended amount to lose one pound a week; then I chose the two-pound-a-week option.
Fast forward to today, and I’m still counting calories-I’ve been using the app for 495 days in a row, to be exact. And I’m currently at 186 pounds, the most fit I’ve been since grade school.
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